Forged in Blood Review

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Forged in Blood (Forged #1) by Kitt Fiona
on March 13, 2026
Genres: Dark Academia
Pages: 366
Format: eARC
Source: Provided by author for honest review
Goodreads

Trust no one. Want nothing. Survive everything.
These are the rules that kept Isobel Ashthorne alive long before she ever set foot inside the pristine halls of Blackmoore Academy. A place where knives hide behind perfect smiles and nothing is quite as it seems.
Thrown into a world of wealth and opulence, Isobel, who’s more used to crumbling walls and neglect than lavish luxury, must find her way in a life she never could’ve dreamed of.
But soon it’s not just trauma from her past she’s trying to overcome but a darker game of power and secrets.
At Blackmoore Academy, the reigning four boys are determined to make one thing clear. She shouldn’t be here.
But as Isobel navigates their cruelty, alliances form and walls are broken down. A split-second decision changes everything. Lines distort, loyalty shifts, and enemies blur into something else. Now the danger is no longer just coming from them, but from the shadows closing in on all of them.
The monster she escaped from in her previous life isn’t finished hunting her.
A battle is coming.
There will be blood, but who will shed the most? And who will be the one to fall?

 

 

 Julie’s Review:

Forged in Blood: A Dark Academia Romance pulls no punches and will leave you screaming “No!”  Check your triggers, for real.

Our main character, Isobel, grows up with a junkie mom and an abusive step-dad. She starts out as a shrinking person always trying to hide and avoid trouble, but trouble still finds her. When one particularly bad situation lands her in the hospital, she is faced with a choice to start over. But she’s done being small and being the victim, and we get to experience her growth in physical and mental strength. She takes back her power, and becomes a badass in a secret organization hidden in a boarding school.

Enter the MMCs… um.. 4 of them plus one more? Please explain to me how 5 guys find themselves rabidly tripping over themselves over this one girl? Suddenly a girl who never had a boyfriend finds herself choosing between a buffet. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, these are her enemies. The ringleader of the Blackmoore Four boy clique wants her out, because she threatens everything he’s worked for his entire life by just showing up out of the blue and being the heiress to this guild. The bullying in this book is rough but fighting alongside each other turns enemies into allies and then into more. When she starts “talking to” this one guy who is nice to her, the 4 boys won’t have it. I liked most of the boys, especially the nerdy tech guy – he’d be my pick. But that’s neither here nor there. They’re each unique in their personalities, sweet and nerdy, possessive, flirty to infinity, and protective. I guess you have to kiss all the boys to find who makes your insides melt. And get advice like this:

“My advice is to pick the one that listens, who knows what you need without you ever needing to ask.”

The story is told from Isobel’s POV with just a couple of POV switches for the boys. That part felt kind of out of place and maybe would have been better if it was more evenly split with POV switches, or none at all. But with extra POV we would have been able to experience more character growth for the boys. One of them especially went through a transformation and I would have enjoyed a chance to see it from his eyes. But we do get some good quotes:

“But the more time I spent around you, I started seeing the cracks in my father’s words. You weren’t some stuck-up bitch, who thought she was owed the world, you weren’t some broken girl we could easily manipulate. Everything we threw at you, you took it and kept getting back up.”

There’s training sequences, flight club, dangerous missions, and spicy times. Then there’s the ending. We’re left kicked off a cliff in the middle of a mission gone haywire and, as previously stated, I am left screaming “NOOOOOOO” and unwell. Miss Ma’am when is book 2? I need to know how they defeat this terrible terrible man. And ultimately will she choose the most chillingly dangerous guy of them all?

I’ll leave you with my favorite banter quote 😉

“You do kind of have resting murder face.”

Tropes:

• Survivor FMC who takes her power back
• 5 MMCs with different shades of morally grey
• Bully romance
• Dark Academia
• Found Family
• Crime syndicate, with morals
• Secret Society

 

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